Faculty rights advocates from around the state met on Feb. 16 to learn more about representation of faculty in the CSU during a training held at CFA Headquarters in Sacramento.

CFA members and staff were trained on topics including retention, tenure, and promotion advocacy, as well as lecturer rights, and the advocacy connected to Article 16 and Executive Orders 1096 and 1097.

If you are a faculty member working in the California State University system, you benefit from “faculty rights” that we gained in the contract that CFA negotiates.

It does not matter that you are tenure-line or a Lecturer, that you are a Librarian or a Coach or Counselor. If you are part of the CSU faculty, then CFA has the ability and duty to help you ensure your rights.

CFA is demanding that CSU management “meet-and-confer” over two Executives Orders issued by the Chancellor over the summer that make big changes in student general education and in remediation requirements.

Building CFA’s Power Through Faculty Rights. CalState LA’s CFA chapter hosted a faculty rights training on faculty advocacy on May 5, 2017.

Members from Fullerton, San Bernardino, Long Beach, and Pomona met with LA’s CFA members to discuss the Collective Bargaining Agreement, lecturer appointments, discipline advocacy, and other rights enjoyed by CSU faculty.

Faculty may feel they are under attack and unjustly scrutinized by emboldened political groups wishing to intimidate us. Our students are under attack too, and we stand with them as we seek to make the CSU inclusive and accessible for all.

Sadly, we’ve seen a number of instances in which CSU administrators, seeking to avoid perceived negative media coverage, have not been as supportive of faculty and students as they should be.

CFA faculty advocates and staff from around the state gathered in February 2017 at CFA Headquarters in Sacramento to discuss and train on faculty fight topics, including temporary faculty appointments and the Retention, Tenure, and Promotion Process.

Last week, Trump enacted an immigration ban restricting people from seven countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) from entering the US. The ban applies even to people who live and work in the US, and as you know resulted in the detention and deportation of people around the country over the weekend.

Despite a federal court stay pending further review, many customs agents continue to enforce and act on Trump’s executive order(s).

Two important legal decisions became public this week, both strengthening the cause of union representation.

The California State Supreme Court declined to take up the latest challenge to teacher tenure rights. Teachers’ unions have argued there was no evidence showing that laws that protect teachers from arbitrary and politically motivated firings have damaged public education in California.